CRIT

01/02/16

Jess and I were quite excited to present our final outcome from the project as we were so proud with what we’d created. We discussed every meaning behind the work such as the use of cards as chance and the unknown when face down, the representation of parallel universes on each suit, the use of gold for cosmic quality, the use of reflected imagery to represent the parallel and so on. Our ideas were maybe lost in translation as we managed to confuse a few people possibly due to the intricacy of our ideas and the coded method of production.

Suggestions were made saying we should play with the cards to see how they feel to be used. We were told to record this. I feel like the cards have a more decorative purpose and aim to explain the unexplained in a deep and meaningful sense, not so much a playful one.​Overall, a mixed bag of emotions after the crit. I am still incredibly proud of what Jess and I have managed to produce in Part 2 of the project and will continue to admire the cards for a long while!

PROJECT DEVELOPMENTS

Part 2 of the project saw Jess and I collaborate once again. I explained my ideas for part 2 which extended my ideas from part 1 to a more extensive exploration of what could lie beyond the visible universe. Jess accepted this idea and we ran with the concept of parallel universes and explaining the unexplained through this.

Before even part 1 of the project, Jess and I both discussed how we’d loved to create a deck of cards and now seemed as good a time as any and, after further consideration, fitted our concept perfectly! From my research in part one of the project, I found that a parallel universe is the theory that there are infinite versions of the world we know which can be altered and changed by the tiniest detail meaning we cannot determine what they contain. Due to this, we decided on each suit becoming a different perspective or interpretation of the parallel universe, breaking it down into categories with hearts being an animal universe, diamonds as a human universe, spades as a dead universe and clubs as a beast universe. In addition to this, we noted how designs on traditional poker/tarot cards are reflected, again suggesting the idea of the parallel on an aesthetic level. We noted the want for the cards to appear the same on the reverse to further exaggerate the idea of chance when the cards are face down which again linked to the fact that parallel universes are unexplained and could contain any matter of things. The details on the cards would also look similar, with a decided style in order to appear as a whole set and therefore be indistinguishable from suit to suit. We combined both mine and Jess’s part 1′s by agreeing on extracting the gold fleck from Jess’s part 1 and my concept and theme.​I began the project by creating a set of designs for the reverse of the cards which I presented to Jess to choose from/alter etc. I wanted them to be detailed as traditional cards encompass this quality but also for the design to be suggestive of the cosmos. In order to experiment with this idea, I downloaded a piece of software that creates fractals. Fractals already feature in my archive and are a never-ending, complex pattern, much like the infinite quality of the universe. It is this infinite property that caused me to explore such patterns. Using the software, I generated a variety of patterns which I edited in Photoshop into the colour scheme we were exploring (white, black and gold).

I feel these images are beautiful and surprisingly representative of the cosmos; I didn’t anticipate the depth in which the randomly generated patterns would reflect the cosmos, only their content of circular motion. The infinite qualities from the pattern deepen this linking to the cosmos and the cyclic patterns reflect the make-up of the universe and planets in orbit. I experimented with layering also which suggests movement from the images that appear to be expanding. I used these images to inspire and inform the a more definitive and graphic pattern which I created for the reverse of the playing cards.​For this pattern I created a design that extracted the circular shapes much from the fractals above and again, the arrangement of the planets around the sun. The shape also looks atomic and suggests the structure and make-up of the universe. I worked in layers from the inside out adding rings and detailing as I progressed. I then layered, reflected and repeated the image to create a pattern that increased in detail but still maintained the cosmic qualities. Unlike the fractals, the image appears to have a boundary, like the edge of a universe. In return, was not greatly representative of a universe with never-ending properties and therefore, the repeat pattern, where the image escapes off the page is far more successful in detailing this infinite theory.

Cosmic design experiments for the reverse of the playing cards

During the production of this pattern, Jess and I found an artist whose work included our colour scheme and pattern idea.

Cryptik (above) creates mesmerizing mandala-like designs and painted, calligraphic symbols. He draws upon the spiritual in nature, pulling from Zen teachings, Buddha, Ganesha, Eastern philosophies, aiming to aid people in developing towards a greater awareness through thought-provoking imagery and graphic iconography. He also uses a palette of browns, golds and black. When stumbling across these murals, they appeared almost exactly how I’d imagined the reverse of the cards to look (though on reflection, I’m glad they don’t). Cryptik’s patterns are extremely detailed and their reflective aspect and colour scheme’s largely influenced ours when creating our imagery. I extracted this colour scheme and cyclic patterning when producing the pattern for the reverse of the cards. The link to mandalas also links well with the developments within my archive in terms of tattooing and patterning. ​After presenting these designs to Jess, we both clearly identified gold as an essential part of the composition. As well as its celestial qualities, the colour also features in part 1 of Jess’s project link both our part 1′s through the gold in Jess’s and the content of universes from mine. We both loved all 3 of the above designs but felt the gold on black would be most powerful due to the contrast in tones. We therefore began exploring ways in which we could reproduce this digital creation physically. We considered hand drawing in gold pen and printing the image as it is until we found a much easier, professional looking and less time consuming method of gold foiling. This technique involved printing the design via laser printer, placing the reactive foil over it, running it through a laminator to fix the foil to the design and peeling away the excess. We watched a variety of tutorials on how to do this before attempting ourselves. We tested the method on one of our drawings (demon hands) to find the gold foil peeled back easily, revealing the design laced with gold beneath. Specks of black could be seen in some places due to using the laminator on a low heat. This was easily rectified by adjusting the heat which saw the gold fix more firmly to the design, reducing the black specks. As a result, the gold foil almost completely changed the tone of the drawings masking the initial sense of evilness with the delicate, rich colouring only to then notice the content and detail of the drawing. Due to the, the link with the theme of parallel universes and revealing the unknown was deepened further.

In addition to the consideration of how to approach the gold detailing, we began to question the cardstock we would use. Jess had a few samples laying around her home which we compared with decks of playing cards we owned. It appeared during this time that not all playing cards use the same cardstock as my deck at home was far more textural than Jess’s. After consideration of how well the design would transfer and look, we decided upon a card called ‘Olin Smooth 300gsm Absolute White’. The grain of this cardstock was very fine, reducing any harsh texture and giving shine to the ink. This smoothness would also aid in the tactile function of the card, allowing the user to shuffle the pack more easily. We did attempt to find black card to create the inverted versions as we’d initially hoped, however it was difficult to find card of the same quality. Issues also would have occurred regarding printing black on black which only increased the difficulty when transferring the designs. This issue coupled with the timing aspect led us to select the card as opposed to black.

For inspiration, Jess referred me to an artist she had researched in part one of her project.

Henrietta used golf flecks within her details and emotive portraits to highlight areas. The reflective quality of the gold adds a dynamic and brings the piece to life by changing its appearance dependent upon which angle you view it at. Now we had decided on white card and therefore a white background, Henrietta’s work gave us a sense of how delicate our images may appear. We hoped to achieve this quality in our images whilst also appearing as delicate as Henrietta’s works to contrast the sometimes dark messages within. ​We accepted the idea of white card with gold detailing on. For the designs we took 2 suits each. Jess produced images for diamonds and clubs while I produced the illustrations for hearts and spade; we both produced 1 joker each also. For the illustrations we assigned each number a theme and produced images for each of the universes (dead, human, beast and animal) with this in mind:

ARCANA TAROT PLAYING CARDS DARK by Chris Ovdiyenko: These cards are highly detailed as we’d hoped to achieve within our deck. The designs reflect the idea of a scene using black and white tones to mystify and enhance the traditional aesthetic. The illustrations also appear etched and, with an upcoming etching induction, is something we could explore through our process rotation. The etched styling also enhances a texture which would add to the tactile qualities of our cards.

ARCANUM PLAYING CARDS by Vovk Aleksand : The black and gold colouring from these cards combined with the recurrent symbolism of the skulls and the dead inspire my “dead world” greatly and enrich the sense of the afterlife which could be considered a parallel universe in itself through the ideas of heaven and hell.

GOVERDOSE 2.0 by Multiple Artists: These cards reflect the more graphic quality which Jess and I will adopt for the ease of printing and it’s allowance when using the gold foiling method. This deck was also created by multiple artists reflecting how a selection of 52 cards can still work as an entity despite being illustration by different hands and minds. Many of the cards also utilise the reflected idea, suggesting methods of how to do this on our behalf.

Due to Jess and I both being assigned two suits each, we began researching different inspirations. Jess explored religious mythologies, where there are concepts of many other worlds, in particular Norse mythology, which is suggested to have worlds united by a the Yggdrasill tree to link each of the worlds together, making them in a sense, versions of one world. In response to this, the tree category of value 5 explored this idea in more depth as well as the theory among the other designs.

Due to being assigned “dead world”, I took the time to delve into the depths of dark art. Dark art is broadly defined as art that is disturbing or horrific in nature, in which death is heavily featured. During my research I stumbled across the mysteries of Russian Prison Tattoos. These tattoos often depict the dead through the use of the symbolism of skulls and tombstones however, it is more the meaning and mystery behind the images and their placement that has inspired me.

During the Soviet Era, it was common to see pictures of Lenin or Stalin (with or without horns) tattooed on a prisoners chest. One theory for this is that prisons guards could not shoot the USSR founding father’s image, thus protecting the chest or abdomen from injury. Even more aptly, tattoos of this sort and those more humiliating such as “child rapist” tattooed across the forehead were issued as punishments such as breaking a dept in a card game.​Throughout the prisons, a code was created which explained each image on the body of each prisoner.

Bear - professional safe crackerBeetle - pickpocketBells - signifies the wearer will serve his entire sentenceCat - single cat means a lone thief, a group of cats means they operated as a groupChurches/Mosques/Fortresses - the number of towers or spires indicates how many years they’ve been incarceratedDagger - sex offenderGoat - informerRose with thorns - prisoner came of age in prisonStars - on the knees means he will kneel for no one. On the shoulders it means he is a man of discipline, status and traditionSkulls - murderer​This code, coupled with the use of symbolism, reflects a similar form to the way Jess and I approached the project where each card related to a world and a theme. Due to my assignment of the ‘dead world’ also, the symbolism of the dagger, the skull and the rose with thorns may appear. The skull possessing connotations for murder in the Russian Prison Tattoo code is transferable to my ‘dead world’ suggesting answers to how the world died. With these ideas in mind, I began illustrating my designs.

Having a total of 27 illustrations to produce was a challenge though we both surprised ourselves with how quickly we managed to do these. Below shows an example of the animal universe I produced for hearts fulfilling each of the above categories for each number. Together these images flow well and appear as a set even though they are reflective of a different theme. ​

I edited the designs into gold also to see how they may appear on the cards; it is difficult to portray the reflective qualities of the gold digitally though they gave us a general idea of how they could look. ​

We created a few of the designs utilising the etching process rotation last Friday. For this, we replicated a few of our illustrations using both soft and hard ground etching processes. We then scanned the prints in and vectorised them as we did when we drew the designs. These images had a similar aesthetic as our drawings due to the styling however they possessed a more textured quality which was tangible and tactile. We’d loved to have produced each card as an etching though time constrains prevented us from doing so. Having each card as an etching would allow us to print each card over and over quickly once each plate had been completed.

For the designs to fit on the cards, I created a template for each design to fit in the center with the suit in opposite corners containing the value inside which I sent to Jess to allow her to quickly edit her designs in. We both completed our 24 images each and then met to physically produce them. We began by formatting them on Adobe Illustrator to fit the 2.5x3.5′ card size and ensured each design was a similar size on the overall design. We also vectorised each image to ensure it was clear and didn’t lose quality when scaled down. We created a template to fit 9 cards to an A4 sheet an ensured the design on the back would line up neatly. We then printed these double sided with the design on one side and the pattern on the reverse and cut out the cards. Following this and armed with a corner punch, I rounded each corner, a total of 218 corners in all. We finally took to the foiling by cutting the foil to fit the design and then running them through the laminator to fix the foil to the design. ​​

The reveal was quite emotional! We were both so happy with how the designs looked. They appear very professional and we feel they are a reflection of how hard we have worked over this project. They possess qualities which are satisfying to touch and hold and their delicacy shines through. ​Finally, we created a box mainly to protect the cards themselves but, on reflection, the box acts a reveal of the unexplained within. We ordered 2 boxes to work from however, unfortunately, the company sent the wrong size twice so we ran out of time. We therefore worked with what we had and cut the boxes up and fixed them together to fit the cards inside. We then covered them in gold and attached a left over background foil to the top. The box was surprisingly sturdy and a good representation of the problem-solving we’d had to overcome in this project.

Overall, this is by far one of the most enjoyable projects I’ve worked on and I feel the result reflects this. We have produced a deck of card that look professional and explore the themes of the unexplained in a creative, variety of ways from their content, their form, their composition and their design. For once I’m excited to present a project!​To improve the project:- experiment with materials to find a way to maintain the gold colouring. With too much friction, the foil begins to fade and rub off the card. - explore further our original idea of having gold designs on a black background. We just need to find a glossy form of black card with a white reverse which was strangely difficult during the time of the project. - consider more processes eg. etching. This would speed up the printing process and make the task more of a physical one exploring the tactile properties of the cards. It would also raise the likelihood of an accident occurring which could benefit the project in an experimental way. - consider texture. Due to the fact the cards will be held, we could also emboss the pattern/designs. This would add more of a texture when holding the cards and further the impressive quality of the cards. It may reduce their delicacy however.

INTRODUCTORY GROUP TASK

04/01/16

We spent the first day back playing around with ideas for the project that is to be briefed tomorrow. Our group of Jess, Amber, Mona, Kate and I were allocated the unexplained incidents surrounding the Bermuda Triangle. We began by researching the location and it’s goings on although Amber seemed to have quite an extensive knowledge on the subject from youtube videos and other documents.

From our thoughts and research we created a mythical explanation of how planes and boats mysteriously disappear within the triangle. To do so we assessed other misconseptions and combined these with our own made up ones to form a narrative. Our story consisted of a glass pyramid (actual myth) housing a giant squid whose breath was so strong thay when he sucked, planes and boats were drawn into the pyramid for him to collect and play with as toys. Other ideas included him moving his tenticles so hard that a current forced the vehicles into the pyramid or perhaps the squid used his tenticles to reach out and grab them.

After completing our first poster which included the slogan “I’m not saying it was a giant glass pyramid with a squid in it but…it was a giant glass pyramid with a squid in it” in order to continue the playful tones, we were told we actually had 3 more hours before the day was up so after lunch, we worked on another poster. The second poster acted as the back story to the first explaining how the squid became encased in the pyramid. Amber came up with the idea that the city of Atlantis had been destroyed and the squid, a pet of a young girl at the time, was the only thing that remained as everything else rotted and decomposed.

During our presentation comments were made about how psychedelic the colours were and how the concept was so far fetched that we appeared to be on some form of drugs. We admit wholeheartedly that the idea is complete fiction and aimed to be playful in order to accentuate and develop the ideas of myths and the unexplained.​Overall, I do not think I would continue with this idea when the brief is set tomorrow however it was a funny task in the end.